Gregory Peck's stalwart band of Blighty's finest
heroes risk life and limb to destroy huge German gun emplacements
threatening Allied ships in the Aegean and rescue a garrison of
stranded soldiers.
The six-man commando team consists of mountaineer
Captain Mallory (Peck), humanitarian explosive’s expert Corporal
Miller (Niven), Greek resistance fighter Andrea Stravos (Quinn),
British Major Franklin (Quayle), young marksman Private Pappadimos
(Darren) and ruthless killer CPO Brown (Baker).
Meeting them along the way are resistance leader Maria
(Papas), who is Pappadimos' older sister, and Anna (Scala), a
beautiful Greek girl who was tortured by the Germans. There's little
love lost between Mallory and Stavros in their ongoing conflict over
leadership, especially when it becomes known that there's a traitor in
their midst. Maria weeds out the traitor, but there are still those
guns to take care of.
A
bloody hand-to-hand skirmish between the good guys and the Nazis, an
enormous tidal wave, and scenes of heart-stopping tension ensue as our
heroes brave the elements whilst scaling a treacherous sea-facing
cliff.
Derring-do adventure at its finest, this tale of
heroism and good old death-or-glory courage was absolutely dripping
with 60's post-war patriotism. The Guns of Navarone has a
righteous cause, a fiendish foe, impossible odds and will have you
pulling imaginary salutes to your commanding officer as the film
reaches its glorious finale.
Filmed on location in Rhodes by veteran director J. Lee Thompson,
and noteworthy for Bill Warrington’s Oscar-winning special effects,
Carl Foreman adapted his screenplay from Alistair MacLean's
best-selling novel. There was a less than successful 1977 sequel, Force
Ten From Navarone.
TRIVIA NOTE FutureLed Zeppelin
manager Peter Grant (a former wrestler) body-doubled for Anthony Quinn
during filming.
Capt. Keith Mallory
Gregory Peck Col. Andrea Stavros
Anthony Quinn Cpl. John Anthony Miller
David Niven 'Butcher' Brown
Stanley Baker Maj. Roy Franklin
Anthony Quayle Pvt. Spyros Pappadimos
James Darren Maria Pappadimos
Irene Papas Anna
Gia Scala Justice Commodore Jensen
James Robertson Justice Squadron Leader Howard Barnsby
Richard Harris Cohn
Bryan Forbes Maj. Baker
Alan Cuthbertson Weaver
Michael Trubshawe